Picking up a decade or so after the events in the original Peyton Place, this 1961 sequel focuses on the fallout from Allison MacKenzie's (Carol Lynley) scandalous novel, whose characters and events closely mirror those in her hometown. Even her stepfather's (Robert Sterling) position as high school principal is threatened after he refuses to remove her book from the school's library. There's more controversy in New York, where MacKenzie is tempted to become involved with her married publisher (Jeff Chandler), and back home, where a miserable matriarch (Mary Astor) tries to destroy her son's marriage because of her own bigotry.